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Regents ought to help UGA workers follow their generous lead

Posted: Thursday, April 22, 2004

Members of the University of Georgia community are banding together to keep fellow employees from being squeezed out by ongoing budget cuts.

This week, a handful of UGA employees said they were willing to forgo the 2 percent pay raise planned for January - the first pay bump for state employees in at least two years - to save others from being laid off. A few have even backed the idea of reducing their existing pay.

The principle behind such generous gestures is spreading the university's financial burden over the entire institution is better than dumping it on an unlucky few. If many UGA employees can be convinced to sacrifice a little extra money, then some or all of the four dozen workers facing layoffs this summer wouldn't have to sacrifice their jobs.

Two weeks ago, the university gave layoff notices to 47 employees - all members of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences or the Public Service and Outreach division.

In recent news reports, UGA officials described the job cuts as unavoidable given calls for state agencies to reduce spending by 2.5 percent this year and another 5 percent next year. With previous cuts having eliminated non-essential expenses and other budget fat from the university's bottom line, administrators contend trimming jobs and programs was the only remaining option.

Not everyone shares the view UGA was backed into a budgetary corner. Those faculty and staff offering to donate portions of their salaries demonstrate at least one option - self-sacrifice - wasn't fully pursued by the administration.

An April 20 Athens Banner-Herald article quoted one professor volunteering to donate $1,000 in salary to a pool of money for the laid-off workers. He said if the administration showed some leadership on this issue and asked faculty and staff for contributions, many people would oblige.

Unfortunately, interest alone won't allow employees to donate pay raises or portions of their salaries into a fund for co-workers. The state Board of Regents sets guidelines for disseminating pay increases and would need to approve any mechanism for shifting raises between employees, according to the news report.

Not exactly a ringing endorsement from the university administration, but it's still better than nothing.

While the laid-off employees and their potential benefactors probably aren't looking forward to jumping through bureaucratic hoops, they might find comfort in the fact that at least some regents can empathize with their plight.

After all, just a few weeks ago members of the Board of Regents dug into their pockets to keep Thomas Meredith, chancellor of the state University System, from suffering as the result of a budget shortfall. While Meredith wasn't in danger of being laid off, the board didn't have enough money to cover his $180,000 annual retirement cushion.

The dilemma facing the regents and chancellor probably didn't evoke much compassion from other state employees, especially those facing unemployment in a few months, but it does provide an interesting parallel to what's happening at UGA.

We also hope it bodes well for the kind of reception the regents will give a proposal allowing university employees to donate their pay raises. If the regents can use their personal money to keep the chancellor in his position, surely UGA employees can be allowed to provide the same generosity to their co-workers.